March 30, 2003 Ensley Bottoms Shelby Co. TN Baird's Sandpipers are sparse spring migrants over here in west TN (more numerous the farther west you get) and many probably sneak through undetected. I have over 200 entries in my data base for them and many more that were not entered because they were seen on consecutive days. I do note length of stay for most species. Only about 17% of these sightings are in the spring. This species comes through in two different spurts. One very early, in fact as early as any Pectoral Sandpipers and long before you would expect Semipalmated or Western Sandpipers. I have one record in February on the 27th, 8 sightings in March and a few in early April. The next and larger grouping comes through in late April and extends through May. I believe a lot of the very early birds are overlooked among the early Pectorals and many others are not seen because there are few out looking for shorebirds at that time. I noticed a bird in the middle of one of the large pits at Ensley today, it just did not have the right coloration and the scope proved my suspicions correct as a Baird's Sandpiper was picking along in its normal level back attitude. I took some distant photographs and scanned through the rest of the Pectoral, Least, Solitary Sandpipers looking for anything else that was new for the season. The numbers were higher than on Saturday but the Black-necked Stilt numbers remained at a dozen birds. Just a heads up reminder to look closely at the Pectoral Sandpipers in late winter and early spring. ;o) The Surf Scoter still slept among the scaup today (Sunday). Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL' COOT / TLBA Bartlett Tenn. =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958 =========================================================